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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

For the first time, I've seen a story about J.J. Abrams new movie, Cloverfield 1-18-08 on television. But rather than talk about the incredibly successful viral marketing campaign that has been all over the web, they chose to focus on this movie poster instead.
Interesting.
Apparently, according to a somber faced Neil Cavuto, the image is far too reminiscent of 9/11 to be accidental and must be a deliberate attempt on the part of the movie makers to grab our attention and cash in on the imagery. They even went so far as to bring in a 9/11 widow to weigh in on the topic. (I tried to find some links to the newscast but haven't been able to).
I admit, I'm tempted to see the side of things that says the background of the poster looks a little bit like the Twin Towers burning but I still don't think this is grounds for a whole lot of controversy. Clearly, we're supposed to assume a gigantic monster of some kind has just devastated the Statue of Liberty before swimming over to Manhattan to continue its rampage.
Last time I checked there weren't any monsters currently in the employ of terrorists.
Maybe I'm making light of this. After all, I didn't lose anyone in the 9/11 attacks and there is a scene in the trailer that is eerily reminiscent of a video taken on 9/11 that shows a massive debris cloud moving outside a store. But sometimes the PC police and the media drive me a bit nuts. I'd wager most people have either been in, or lost someone to, a traffic accident. But you don't see people losing their minds whenever a traffic accident is shown on T.V. Okay, maybe that's too common to be a good analogy. But I think you get the point.
For some reason New York seems to be a popular setting for disaster movies and frankly any damage done is probably going to involve smoke and flames from tall buildings. So does this mean that no disaster movies should be set in New York to spare the delicate sensibilities of anyone who remembers 9/11? Or am I just being unsympathetic?
After all, despite any resemblances, intended or otherwise, it is a monster movie. Perhaps there is an intention to shock us with the images of destruction that look like 9/11. Or maybe they're simply simulating real-life footage to more accurately show what a catastrophe on that scale would look like.
Or maybe we're just really, really over thinking this.

Oh yeah, can you just imagine if "Independence Day" was made now? Heaven forbid a movie-maker should depict what might actually happen (i.e. aliens attacking our leadership).

What really got me was that they trotted out a 9/11 widow. I'm not going to insult the victims of 9/11 like Ann Coulter (or Satan in women's clothing as I like to call her) but it seems like a cheap way to try to make a point. No one wants to diminish what they went through, and the TV networks know that. It's like kicking a puppy.

Oh lord, give it a rest! If you are going to have something attack NYC, the most well known landmark is the statue of liberty. It has nothing to do with 9/11 and although I think people need to maintain a bit of sensitivity (I don't believe 'anything goes') but this is crazy.